The group filed a petition for an emergency stay Wednesday, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to block the state from using a court-drawn interim congressional redistricting map for November's general election, claiming it's discriminatory to minority voters.

“We have no choice,” said Luis Vera, LULAC's attorney. “We need a new map so that the Latino community gets the representation, (or) at least the opportunity to vote for the candidates of their choice.”

The appeal comes after a federal judicial panel in San Antonio declared Friday that the current interim maps would be used for the upcoming general election and that the legal fight over redistricting would be delayed until after the November election.

That decision was the result of a hearing last week, during which Vera argued that a decision by judges in Washington, D.C., to strike down redistricting maps passed by the Legislature should also invalidate the interim maps.

His argument was anchored around the unanimous finding of the D.C. court, specifically pointing out that the state couldn't prove the Legislature's congressional and Texas Senate maps were enacted without discriminatory intent.

In his filing with the Supreme Court, Vera writes that “at least four of the districts in (the interim map) are identical to districts in (the Legislature's map) that the D.C. Court found to be either retrogressive or intentionally discriminatory.”

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott gave notice last week that he was appealing the D.C. panel's decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.